


running through my head

by miss-minnelli (sherlollyshipperalltheway)



Category: Twelfth Grade (or Whatever) (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Compliant (as far as 'I Am No Man'), F/M, M/M, probably going to be cannonballed though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-07-15 14:15:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7225723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sherlollyshipperalltheway/pseuds/miss-minnelli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The stuff going on in Oren's life and inside his head that we don't see between the Q&A and "Unreliable Narrator".</p>
            </blockquote>





	running through my head

**Author's Note:**

> title from "All the Things She Said" by t.A.T.u.
> 
> (some of this is already cannonballed, but it was fun to write!)

It was late April when Oren started to question his sexuality. He had always been sure he was straight, and he had been really into Liv for the past several months. But these past few weeks, he’d started feeling some weird things for his roommate, Sam, a dude. Sam had been his best friend for the past two years, but suddenly, Oren found himself wanting to hold his hand and run his fingers through Sam’s soft hair. (Of course, he didn’t actually know if Sam’s hair was soft, but he seemed to be spending a lot of time thinking about it lately.)

At first, Oren decided he couldn’t have a crush on his roommate because he didn’t like dudes. He had to reassess that claim later in the week when he found himself staring at Sam’s mouth instead of listening to his question about Spanish homework.

Could he be gay? No, because he really had been in love with Liv (or at least his image of Liv). Was he bi then? Maybe?

A couple of days later, he had decided that bisexual seemed like the right label at the moment. He had been attracted to guys in the past, but he'd always pushed it away and blamed it on liking the guy's outfit. He didn’t tell anybody though, because he didn't feel quite ready. 

He did, however, sit closer to Sam on his bed when they watched _Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_ that night and made stupid excuses to touch Sam’s hand and reached across him for popcorn just to feel the smaller boy’s body heat on his arm. Sam didn’t notice, or else he ignored Oren’s odd behavior. At a particularly scary moment during the film, Sam grabbed on to Oren’s arm in fright, but he let go right away after he realized what he’d done. After that, Sam avoided eye contact with Oren throughout the rest of the movie, and when it was over, he promptly decided he was tired and went straight to bed.

…

After Sam kissed him, Oren accidentally told Sam that he wasn’t straight. He panicked and made an excuse to run out of the room as quickly as possible. This kiss had been confirmation that he was indeed in love with Sam, but he still wasn’t ready to come out, or even really kiss a boy at this point.

So he basically sulked in Vic’s room for the next week. He even slept on Curt’s old bed and carefully planned times to go back to his own room to avoid seeing Sam.

On the fourteenth, he got a call from a number he didn’t recognize. Probably a wrong number. “Hello?”

“Hello. Is this Oren?" 

He furrowed his brow. So it wasn’t a wrong number. Okay…“Yes.”  

“Good. This is Liv Belcik. I am calling regarding some information I have on our mutual friend Sam Messing. Please meet me at my house tomorrow at 10 am. You know where it is. I think you are going to want to hear this.” Her voice was strong and firm. Oren decided he didn’t really have a choice in the matter, plus he was curious, so he agreed.

“Alright. I’ll be there.” 

“Thank you.” The line went dead.

Oren flopped down on his bed. (Yes, his bed. He had come to his room to get a change of clothes for tomorrow and then scurry off to Vic’s room, but there had been a hiccup in that plan when Liv called.)

What could Olivia possibly know about Sam that Oren didn’t? Sam’s his best friend. Granted, he hadn’t spoken to his roommate in about a week, but that didn’t mean they weren’t still best friends. Bitterly, Oren decided that Same could be hiding anything if he had gone the past two years without telling Oren about his brother.

…

He had not been prepared for this. Sam was a girl? He had been living with a girl for the past year and he hadn’t even known. He’d been leaving his dirty underwear on the floor and walking around shirtless in front of a girl. He knew Sam—Viola would say he was being sexist, but he decided he had the right to be upset. Oren’s best friend had been lying about her gender for over a year and didn’t even think to confide in him. He wasn’t even really _upset_. He was hurt. He was hurt that Viola hadn’t trusted him. 

Oren let all of this sink in for a few hours. The longer he thought about it, the angrier he got, and the angrier he got, the more he wanted to kiss Viola. 

He planned to talk to Viola that evening when she came back to their room. He was ready with a big speech about how much she had hurt him, and if all went to plan, they would work out their differences, and he would get to properly kiss the girl he was pretty much head over heals for, despite her recent wrongdoings. 

Viola didn’t come back to the room that night. Oren waited up until 1:30, but there was no sign of her. He finally fell asleep clutching his phone. 

The next day, Oren had a class at 8:30. He was barely awake enough to shower, but he made it to physics right on the dot of 8:29. Viola was in that class as well, but she was already sitting between Vic and Drew, so there was no chance of talking to her this morning. 

He tried to talk to her during several passing periods and attempted to catch her eye during Math and American Literature, but she wouldn’t look at him.

Finally, around 2:30, Oren had a free period. He decided to film a video. He’d been doing that lately. He didn’t usually post them, but it was kind of therapeutic.

… 

Great. Well that wasn’t how Oren had hoped that conversation would go. He’d calmed down significantly since last night, or so he’d thought, but then he had ended up giving Viola a lecture that hardly even made sense to him. Viola had said “Oren, you talk too much.”

He’d taken that as a sign that she was done with the conversation. Oren figured that he would try again later after Viola was ready to actually have a discussion about how shitty she’d made him feel.

Instead, she’d decided that this would be a good time to tell him that she hadn’t meant anything by the kiss they’d shared. Great. Their talk had gone worse than Oren could have imagined.

…

That night, Oren tried to stay with Vic again. Vic was getting pretty tired of being in the middle of Oren and Viola’s shit. Yeah, he’d heard about the whole “Sam is a girl” thing. He’d actually known about it since Sam’s brother posted the explanation video, but obviously, Viola hadn’t wanted the information publicized so he hadn’t mentioned it. Additionally, he’d been quite bored since Curt left, so he had ended up rewatching several of Sam’s videos, and after finding out that Sam is actually a woman, even Vic could see how much Viola liked Oren.

So that evening, when Oren showed up at his door, Vic shook his head. “I’m not putting up with this anymore. You two need to actually talk this out. I know you like her. And dude, she kissed you last week. Don’t you think that means something?”

“But she said—”

“I don’t care what she said. She was probably trying to save face because she thinks you still like Liv.”

“Oh.” 

“Yeah, see: I do know a few things about girls,” said Vic with a half-hearted chuckle. “Just go talk it out, alright?” 

Oren nodded slowly. “Yeah, you’re right. I can’t lose her because we both refuse to tell the truth about anything.” He gave Vic a salute of thanks and practically sprinted down the hallway.

Vic smiled and rolled his eyes. _These two_.

Oren barged in the door to his and Viola’s room, but he stopped short as soon as he saw his roommate.

She was wearing her usual pajama bottoms, but instead of a baggy t-shirt, she was wearing a tightly-fitting white tank top that showed a lot more of her than Oren was used to.

As soon as Viola realized that she was being stared at she started searching for a sweatshirt. “Sorry, I—I thought you were staying with Vic so I just—I don’t know.” She stopped rambling once she had retrieved her big green sweatshirt and zipped it up completely. 

Oren snapped his jaw shut, and immediately blushed because he didn’t realize he had been staring _with his mouth open_. Shit, he was far gone. He shook his head in an attempt to clear it. They needed to have this conversation right now.

“Viola, I’m tired of all the lies and half-truths. I guess I understand why you had to tell them, but can we please be done with them from now on. You’re my best friend and I’m on your side. And I—I really liked it when you kissed me.” 

Now it was Viola’s turn to stare. “You did? But you basically ran screaming from me and didn’t speak to me for a week afterwards.”

“I didn’t know what to think, okay? First of all, I thought you were a dude, and I was working through some shit with that, so it was kind of a weird feeling. Then I found out that you aren’t a dude. Which somehow made everything more confusing because I still think maybe I like dudes and girls. And then, you said you were confused when you kissed me, so I didn’t think you liked me anymo—”

Viola charged at Oren and threw her arms around his neck, causing him to stop speaking abruptly, but she didn’t kiss him—not yet.

“ _Oren Douglas_ , would you mind if I kissed you? Because I have quite a big crush on you.”

“It would be my pleasure, _Viola_.”

Viola stood up on her tip-toes a little bit and placed a soft and tender kiss on Oren’s lips. They stood still like that for a few moments, until Oren began to move his lips and she reciprocated while running her hands through his hair. Oren did the same to her hair (it was indeed soft like he’d predicted). 

A few minutes later, Viola broke the kiss and said a little breathlessly, “That hurts my toes.”

Together, they sat down on Viola’s bed. “Listen Oren, I’m sorry for all of the lies. I hope you can forgive me.”

“Eww, stop being so weird and formal! Of course I forgive you, weirdo. You’re my best friend.”

**Author's Note:**

> Edit: I just found out that Oren is canonically bi, so I have amended my story to fit that! I am sorry if I offended anyone by accidentally erasing his sexuality. 
> 
> Additional note: Viola/Sam is referred to here with she/her pronouns after Oren discovers she is a girl because this is set before "Family Time" and those were the pronouns I (and actually Oren as well) was aware of at the time. 
> 
> :)


End file.
